More Indigenous midwives could help end long-distance travel for births – News 1130

ANCOUVER (CityNews) — Indigenous women in Canada are far more likely than non-Indigenous women to give birth hundreds of kilometers from home — far from family, disconnected from culture and community.

Nearly one in four Indigenous expectant mothers who live in rural communities travel long more than 200 kilometres to deliver their babies. For non-Indigenous women, that rate is only about two in every hundred. These are some of the findings in a recently-published study that suggests training more Indigenous midwives would allow births to take place in Indigenous communities, on Indigenous territories.

“Access to birth close to home, surrounded by loved ones, is taken for granted by most Canadians,” says the study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in June.

Read More: https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/08/30/bc-indigenous-midwives-childbirth-travel/